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Cal Baseball Defeats Minnesota, 9-3, in NCAA Regional.

BATON ROUGE, LA - Bolstered by a five run first inning and the pitching of Jason Dennis and David Cash, No. 3 seeded Cal eliminated No. 4 seeded Minnesota, 9-3, in the second day of the NCAA Regional at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, LA. The Bears improve to 34-24 overall, while the Golden Gophers, who lost to host LSU, 10-9, Friday, end their season 39-21.

Cal will now face the loser of the Virginia Commonwealth-LSU game (played at 3 p.m. Saturday) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday night. The Bear were defeated by the VCU Rams, 9-7, Friday night and LSU is the defending national champions.

Cal jumped all over Minnesota starter Ben Birk and reliever C.J. Woodrow when senior right fielder Rob Meyer hit a two-run homer to right field off of Birk and later senior first baseman Clint Hoover hit a two-run homer off of Woodrow. Freshman shortstop Jeff Dragicevich added an RBI single as the Bears sent 10 batters to the plate in the first inning.

Cal was able to keep the offense going the rest of the game. The Bears scored a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Hoover, a run in the sixth on an RBI single by Meyer, another run in the seventh on an RBI single by Hoover and a run in the eighth on a solo homer by Meyer. Meyer finished the day 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI. Hoover was 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBI. Junior Carson White and Dragicevich added two hits apiece for Cal.

Meanwhile, Dennis (5-3, 5.3 innings, seven hits, three runs, two walks, one strikeout) was solid, giving up all his three runs via home runs, surrendering a two-run shot in the bottom of the first to Josh Holthaus and a solo shot to Kurt Haring in the sixth inning. Cash was impressive, earning his fourth save of the season to go along with his 10-3 record. He pitched 3.7 innings, yielding only one hit with no runs, no walks and four strikeouts.

The Bears now have a 32-16 all-time record in postseason play.

Home Runs:

Cal: Meyer, two-run homer in the first inning. Hoover, two-run homer in the first inning. Meyer, solo home run in the eighth inning.

Minnesota: Holthaus, two-run homer in the first inning. Haring, solo home run in the sixth inning.